Moroccan Brown AleSpearhead Brewing Company

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Rock the Casbah! Moroccan Brown Ale is a full-flavoured American style brown ale with a Moroccan accent. Inspired by the flavours of the Maghreb region of North-West Africa, this unique brown ale is made with dates, figs, raisins and a dash of cinnamon. It is unfiltered and naturally carbonated and has all the complex flavour and bouquet of a fine red wine with notes of plum, brown sugar and dried fruit.

Bottle: Poured a brown color ale with a medium size foamy head with good retention and light lacing. Aroma consists of caramelized malt with light dry fruits with some light spices including cinnamon are also noticeable. Taste is also dominated by cinnamon with some caramel malt with medium residual sugar notes and some dry fruits notes also noticeable. Body is about average with good carbonation. Interesting mix of flavours but lacking a bit fo integration to make it truly remarkable.

On tap at Bar Hop Dark Days. Spicy and sweet. I could drink this, but way too much going on.That stops drinkability, and appreciation of the fruitiness. I could sip a little, or stew some food with it.Another novelty.Too cloying, like drinking the syrup of canned fruit.

Moroccan Brown is brewed with a bunch of different ingredients but looks especially like two of them; it has a medjool date colour and cinnamon highlights. Far from light or clear but not exactly dense or hazy, the beer is a bit tough to describe. One thing for sure: it has no head.

The bouquet has a dash of spice that's tempered by dried fruits and a tinge of roasted grain. For all its 'exotic' flavourings, familiar scents of toasted pecan, molasses and coffee bean are what's noted most. It fails to really draw me in though it certainly doesn't turn me away.

Moroccan Brown Ale has a marked lack of texture - even the sweetness is surprisingly restrained - and fails to light any kind of spark on the palate. Although inspired by Maghreb (North African) cuisine, you're not likely to find anything this "clean" or neutral in a diet dominated by the likes of cumin, paprika, saffron, fresh peppermint, and coriander. This is bland by comparison.

The expressionless mouthfeel aside, the flavour is pleasant. The beer is brewed with dates, figs, raisins and cinnamon and has minor hints of all those things. More prevalent, however, is the malt which tastes of toasted nuts, brown sugar and burnt bread crust. There is also a tinge of black olive. Again, however, nothing makes a remarkable impression or lasts very long.

I've used a lot of different flavours in this review to describe what is honestly a very ordinary brown ale (which is disappointing considering all the hoopla that's gone into it). I've enjoyed Moroccan Brown every time I've had it but still struggle to think of much to recommend it by; it's probably best suited to those transitioning from mainstream lagers to bolder beers.

355 mL bottle from a sixer picked up at the LCBO; bottled June 26 2014. Served slightly chilled.

Pours a beautiful, deep mahogany-copper colour, clouded with sediment and topped at first with over two fingers of frothy, off-white head. It gradually dissipates over the next five minutes, leaving behind a dense, creamy cap and a swiss-cheese pattern of lacing on the glass. The aroma is a nice mixture of brown sugar, bready malts, raisins and other dried fruits, with maybe a slight touch of cinnamon. Not exactly off-putting, but not particularly interesting given the unique ingredient list.

A respectable brown ale. The malt bill dominates, providing notes of bread crust, toasted hazelnut and caramel/brown sugar sweetness. The fruit and spice adjuncts are left to provide an auxiliary sweetness that holds fast in the background - raisin and fig are detectable, but this is not a markedly fruity-tasting beer (which may or may not be your bag - I personally am fine with it). Mild cinnamon spice in the finish, with the sweetness soon fading into a relatively dry aftertaste. Medium in body, with smooth, natural carbonation levels that provide a modest bite suitable for a light(ish) spiced ale - particularly in the context of the spicy cinnamon of the tail end of the profile.

Final Grade: 3.68, a decent B. Spearhead's Moroccan Brown Ale is a good spiced beer, although admittedly there are a few things that I think would improve it. There is a little too much residual sweetness for my liking, and very little date/fig flavour to speak of. That being said, I am mostly nitpicking - this is still a tasty beer, it's just not completely up my alley, which means I probably won't return to it frequently. Worth a look for any fan of malty/dark ales, and something I'd be interested in trying on tap.

Appearance - Brown colour with hints of red with an above average size foamy dark beige coloured head. It's hard to make out the level of carbonation and there is some decent lacing. The head lasted for around 4 minutes.

Smell - Malts, touch of chocolate/vanilla, dark fruits

Taste & Mouth - There is an average amount of carbonation and I can taste malts and a hint of chocolate/vanilla. There is also some dark fruit notes with a hint of spice. It reminded me a bit of a fruit cake. It ends with malty slightly sweet aftertaste.

Overall - Another above average beer from this brewer. There was something to it that tasted a little too artificial, but it was still quite drinkable. I can see this working well as holiday/winter beer. Worth trying for sure.